How to get any preformance out of Rain network with B618

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DblD

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So folks, this has been very disappointing experience thus far.

After investing in Huawai B618s-22d and connecting XPOL-6-10M to it, locating the cell tower validating its location confirming los at ~1km distance

CELL_ID: 51235329
RSRQ: -10dB
RSRP: -69dBm
SINR: 2dB

This is the absolute best that i can get out



What is going on, is this really this bad or am i doing something wrong ?
 
Nothing wrong with your signal there.

Have you tried forcing your B618 to the 2600 MHz band? It could be that you have ultra-congestion on that tower. For reference, I have a signal level of about -85 to -90 dBm and I typically get above 20 Mbps.

Otherwise contact your ISP.
 
silkenphoenixx said:
Nothing wrong with your signal there.

Have you tried forcing your B618 to the 2600 MHz band? It could be that you have ultra-congestion on that tower. For reference, I have a signal level of about -85 to -90 dBm and I typically get above 20 Mbps.

Otherwise contact your ISP.
Click to expand...

Its congestion for sure, trying this morning i got following result:



Does forcing freq band help with having more consistent connection or is this always going to be crap when its busy?

For adjusting frequencies and discussion around that
https://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/920902-Do-you-see-4G-or-4G-with-Rain/
 
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The router will default to whichever band gets the best SNR, and that's usually 1800 MHz because it penetrates buildings better. Though with your antenna it might actually be on 2600 MHz already, I'm not sure whether there's a way to check with the default firmware.

If there's a lot of congestion on 1800 MHz, the 2600 MHz band might give you a bit more room to breathe. But it also might not, you'd have to experiment and see.
 
silkenphoenixx said:
The router will default to whichever band gets the best SNR, and that's usually 1800 MHz because it penetrates buildings better. Though with your antenna it might actually be on 2600 MHz already, I'm not sure whether there's a way to check with the default firmware.

If there's a lot of congestion on 1800 MHz, the 2600 MHz band might give you a bit more room to breathe. But it also might not, you'd have to experiment and see.
Click to expand...

+1 I've noticed that Rain supplies the B315 that only supports 1800Mhz so 1800MHz will get congestion because they are giving the B315 away for free and everyone is taking that. For people close to the tower and/or with a properly aligned external antenna 2600MHz would no doubt give better performance on download and slower upload because of the way TDD works.
 
For what is worth, forcing 2600 turned out to be the solution for me.

Speeds are holding up in the evenings and are hitting pretty decent levels, albeit i do notice degradation to about 40Mbps form about 20:30 in the evening

Thank you so much for nudging me in right direction, this was going back into box and back to ISP, if it was not for your suggestions.

IMG_3209.PNG.PNGIMG_3214.PNG.PNGIMG_3213.PNG.PNG
 
I told u this in reply to ur post in the speedtest thread yesterday...

Your SNR was dreadful, lot's of interference from somewhere.
 
Those B315 routers have flooded the market now.. major congestion on telkom 1800 as well
 
From what I have looked into:

RSRQ: Is the receiving signal quality.. e.g. -19.5dB(bad) to -3dB (good).
RSRP: Is the receiving signal power.. e.g -140dbm(bad) to -44dbm (good).
SNR: Signal to Noise Ratio.. generally anything in -0dB or less is bad.. and positive values are good.

This gets a bit "iffy" as for example if you are using a Huawei B618, and you let the network to default, it would downgrade your network from 4G to 3G etc, and you would probably see better SNR, but lower speeds like above.

What I do, is specify "4G Only" and find the closest available RainLTE Access Point, and set it. This gave me great results, but its pretty temperamental at the best of times, but I do get an Average of about 25Mbps Down and 5Mbps Up.

If you really want to improve your speeds, its best to get a Antennae for your router. If you are using Huawei, then its likely to support MIMO ("MIMO" referred to the use of multiple antennas at the transmitter and the receiver.)

This one is a good one: https://www.4gltemall.com/4g-lte-mimo-antenna.html and is available locally on back-order (Probably Drop-shippers).

You won't win contacting your ISP either way, as they are all pretty much resellers, and IS (IS Ignite reseller here) has awful support. And it really all boils down to where you are.

Hope this helps.
 
This is very helpful info, thank you.

I'm having some issues with Rain lately. My B618 seems to want to connect to a tower that is further away from me than another which gives me better d/l speeds. Is it possible to force it to connect to a specific CID?
 
Pixual said:
This is very helpful info, thank you.

I'm having some issues with Rain lately. My B618 seems to want to connect to a tower that is further away from me than another which gives me better d/l speeds. Is it possible to force it to connect to a specific CID?
Click to expand...

Not possible unfortunately the only solution would be using a directional antenna and point it to the direction of the tower you want. That should help unless the 'bad' tower is really close then the signal will probably be too strong for the router to change.
 
cavedog said:
Not possible unfortunately the only solution would be using a directional antenna and point it to the direction of the tower you want. That should help unless the 'bad' tower is really close then the signal will probably be too strong for the router to change.
Click to expand...
did you find a solution to this?
 
Pixual said:
This is very helpful info, thank you.

I'm having some issues with Rain lately. My B618 seems to want to connect to a tower that is further away from me than another which gives me better d/l speeds. Is it possible to force it to connect to a specific CID?
Click to expand...
I also have a similar issue.
 
Pixual said:
This is very helpful info, thank you.

I'm having some issues with Rain lately. My B618 seems to want to connect to a tower that is further away from me than another which gives me better d/l speeds. Is it possible to force it to connect to a specific CID?
Click to expand...
Only with an advanced LTE CPE like the Huawei B2338. In admin mode you can select the particular tower and cell and lock to it. Normal routers/devices are designed to dynamically switch between cells so this is not possible. You can however achieve this to some degree with a directional antenna like the XPOL-6, with careful aiming - I did this with my B311s. The router stays on the same cell all the time.
 
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jbroo said:
Only with an advanced LTE CPE like the Huawei B2338. In admin mode you can select the particular tower and cell and lock to it. Normal routers/devices are designed to dynamically switch between cells so this is not possible. You can however achieve this to some degree with a directional antenna like the XPOL-6, with careful aiming - I did this with my B311s. The router stays on the same cell all the time.
Click to expand...
Hi I have a huawei CPe unit B2368 can I lock it to 2600mhz frequency any idea how the interface is a bit tricky I feel
 
silkenphoenixx said:
Nothing wrong with your signal there.

Have you tried forcing your B618 to the 2600 MHz band? It could be that you have ultra-congestion on that tower. For reference, I have a signal level of about -85 to -90 dBm and I typically get above 20 Mbps.

Otherwise contact your ISP.
Click to expand...
Hi I have the same issue but I know it’s congestion in the tower in my area how can I lock the 2600 with the internal antenna the closest tower that supports 2600mhz is 2.87 from me thanks
 
If your router allows you to lock to B38 then try. If you get no signal then no luck. Rain's coverage is mostly B3.

Even if you do pick up B38 it may be far. 2600 is not a cure-all.

The problem is not reception, it's capacity on suburban towers.
 
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